to follow it, and it is forbidden to depart from it. Furthermore, interpreting these divine attributes can only fall under one of two cases: either the Prophet ﷺ, the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and the scholars among his Companions knew its meaning, or they did not. If they did not know it, how can anyone after them claim to know it? Could it be imagined that knowledge was withheld from them yet reserved for later dialecticians because of some supposed distinction they possess?
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If, on the other hand, they did know it and nonetheless deemed it sufficient to remain silent, then what sufficed them suffices us, and may Allah not grant ease to anyone for whom what sufficed them does not suffice. Moreover, this proposed interpretation is either an indispensable element of the religion—without which the faith is incomplete—or it is not. Whoever maintains that it is indispensable must be asked: Was Allah truthful when He said, “Today I have perfected for you your religion” (Al-Ma’idah 5:3) before this interpretation appeared, or are you truthful in claiming that the religion was deficient until you completed it? If it truly were a component of the religion that neither the Prophet ﷺ nor his Companions accepted, then they must have fallen short, leaving their religion incomplete while the religion of this interpreter is complete—something no Muslim would say. Likewise, were it truly part of the religion yet the Prophet ﷺ failed to convey it to his community, he would have betrayed them, concealed the religion, and disobeyed his Lord’s command: “O Messenger, convey what has been revealed to you from your Lord” (Al-Ma’idah 5:67) and His words, “Proclaim openly what you have been commanded” (Al-Hijr 15:94). Such an implication declares the Prophet ﷺ and all who testified to his full delivery of the message untruthful—and that is unbelief in Allah and His Messenger.
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On rational grounds as well, Allah’s attributes and names cannot be grasped by intellect alone, for the intellect only comprehends the quality of something it has seen or of something whose like it has seen. Yet Allah, exalted be He, cannot be perceived by sight; He has no equal and no likeness. Hence His attributes and names are known solely through revelatory instruction (tawqīf). Revelation has informed us only of the names of the attributes, not of their modality or detailed explanation, and we must therefore confine ourselves to what has been transmitted.